Transformers: the bonds of family
by MISCrasyaboutfanfics
Summary: Eight orphaned siblings find themselves involved in the Autobot-Decepticon war. Rewrite of "Transformers: Family ties".
1. Chapter 1 prologue

Transformers: The bonds of family

Author's note: After a long delay, I've decided to rewrite one of my older stories to see if I could make it better. This is what resulted.

Disclaimer: As said before, I only own my OCs. I do not own the Transformers, they belong to Hasbro and this is not set in an established TF universe although it will have influences from several of the series'.

(Optimus Prime's POV)

It has been 3 years and yet it is hard to believe that Elita and I are taking care of human children while waging the battle against the Decepticons. While Lauren and Terry have gone out to find out what they wish to do with their lives, their younger siblings are still not adults; Kyle has two more years of high school and Brandon, the youngest, is in 3rd grade. I know that not all humans are like them but it is the Wilson siblings who are a reminder of how much they and the rest of their species have to learn.

Perhaps it would be best to write down everything that happened when we first met and begin from there and hopefully, the kids will supply their own POVs of what has happened if I ask them…

(Lauren's POV)

There is nothing more frustrating than being the oldest in a large family. I often wish I was the only kid but whatever the reason is that God gave me siblings, I would not have traded them for the world and it had to have been a good reason.

The Autobots are another story; I was not one to believe in life on other planets. Marcy always believed that it was possible "they just haven't tried to contact us". Also, Kayla didn't think God made just humans and the animals on Earth as the only living creatures in the universe. It was something we and our parents would debate once in a while and it usually wasn't serious.

My parents, well, let's just say that they were not perfect but they were good parents. They disciplined us when necessary, would give us tips on how to deal with life, and reminded us to not lose faith. Our family is in fact Roman Catholic but we do not judge people who had different beliefs than us. (I had a friend once who was homosexual and always prayed that God would help him and show him love but that's another story.) Our small town of Lanceville, WA is a very diverse small town so we're used to seeing many different people, both locals and the occasional tourists that stop here on their way to Seattle. It's something that just seems normal after a while once one gets used to it. Mom had brown hair and she passed that on to Kyle, Darcy, Marcy and Kayla while Dad passed on his red hair to Lisa and I. Brandon on the other hand got blonde hair while Terry was also a brunette anyway when he was first adopted into the family. (Only my parents remember that being that I was two years old at the time and not understanding what was going on). Each of us is 2 years apart in age and most of our birthdays are in the spring whereas Kyle's, Lisa's and mine are all in June. We remember our parents' birthdays of course but it's more of a solemn occasion for everyone.

Most people dislike their parents and don't like arguing over things like cell phone privileges, curfew, schoolwork, etc. After our own mom and dad died, all of us Wilson siblings would say that we would give anything to be able to have that. I decided to legally declare myself an adult because as much as my siblings are a handful, I can't stand them being separated. Terry, my first younger brother, is definitely helpful when it comes to taking care of everybody. I don't know where he learned it but somehow he always seems to take things in stride but will talk to me about anything that's bugging him.

Sure, Terry may be African-American and adopted, but once again, my family is not judgmental. He has yet to search for his birth parents and thinks that we're the greatest thing he's ever had. The occasional racist tourist that sees us walking through town or eating at the local diner owned by my friend's dad will give quite a few insults that are not appropriate to state here but we have all learned to ignore them. Someday I hope those people learn that skin color and ability/disability are not all there is to a person.

Kyle, the first of my biological siblings and my 2nd younger brother does in fact have some amazing ability. He is extremely good at basketball. This would be great if he didn't brag so much but I think the reason he does it is a coping mechanism for Dad not being able to tell him "great job son" whenever he makes a good play in a game. He does of course have his limits on what he'll dare to do, basketball related or not, much to everyone's relief although I swear if he imitates Michael Jordan one more time, I am really going to question his sanity.

If I could get Lisa relief from bullying easily, I would have done it a long time ago. She was born without the ability to walk and we're not really sure why; Mom never did drugs, smoked or drank alcohol during that pregnancy or any other one that she had. Our parents were never addicted to those things and taught us to stay away from them. Darcy thinks it's just bad genes and is probably right, maybe she isn't. Regardless of the real reason, my fellow redheaded sibling has always been used to being in a wheelchair and is quite the artist when it comes to drawing pictures of us, TV show characters, or whatever she feels like drawing. She won't make images of things that are dirty and never creates disturbing scenes. Still, if kids keep telling her that she's ugly, I really fear for what will happen, even with us now having the Autobots around as our extended family to help her out when they're not on the battlefield.

Darcy is extremely bad at sports hence her being the "nerd" of the family. She will help everyone with their science homework after doing her own, only if it's under that of her grade level of course. I mean, she's not smart enough to go off to college before 18 but she is still smart nonetheless. Darcy would have to be the one to have the most difficulty keeping true to our religion but it doesn't bother us too much, especially not her twin, Marcy.

Well, what can I say about my other sibling that happens to be half of the only set of twins? Marcy is addicted to popular culture. Television shows, video games, books, you name it. She tends to quote a lot of them. She is on the autism spectrum just slightly as she tends to want to ignore reality and stay in her own fantasy worlds. She's not going to be able to do that forever of course but still, I can live with her being a Trekkie or doing a one-person act version of one of Shakespeare's plays.

My youngest sister Kayla is the quietest person in the family. She always reminds me to take everyone to church and she's pretty sure that she wants to be in a convent someday but I don't know for sure if that will ever happen. Shy and sensitive are the best words to describe her but if one knew her as well as the rest of us did, they would know that all she wants is to think deep thoughts and help make the world a better place to live.

Brandon, my youngest brother just wants to be as manly as Kyle and Terry and isn't so keen on having a lot of sisters. He can be a pest but knows where to draw the line. Thank God that we're all pretty close as a family or I wouldn't know what good things to say about him or the rest of us kids.

Personally, I think that Optimus could tell you about us meeting the Autobots a little bit better but our side of the story should be told as well. Either way, it is still our story and proof enough that we haven't always been where we are right now, a family of robots and organics.

Author's note: To those who read the original, I hope you enjoy this rewrite. There will be at least one thing in the original eliminated from this version and more description and characterization. To new reviewers/readers, I hope you also enjoy this.


	2. Chapter 2 introductions to each other

Transformers: the bonds of family chapter 2

Disclaimer: I only own the Wilson siblings, Emerald and Lavender. The TFs belong to Hasbro and anything else referenced in here belongs to the respective owners.

(Optimus Prime's POV)

I had nearly forgotten what peace felt like; the war against the Decepticons had been going on for centuries, way too many for any one of my teammates or myself to count. Still, it was hard to believe that all of us were headed toward a planet that was, for the time being, mostly peaceful in a sense. I had to admit that "Earth" was a strange name but I would eventually grow used to it and the equally strange life forms that populated that world.

I turned to Ratchet and ordered him to find a landing spot where we could avoid any casualties if at all possible. Jazz and his sparkmate Emerald were to research vehicle modes to find the best ones suited for everyone on our team, Ironhide began making sure that everyone's weapons were in working order and once we landed, Bumblebee was to do some espionage and see what the Decepticons were up to.

"Don't worry Prime; we're not going to let them ruin this place. You can always trust us to keep the 'cons off of our helms." Jazz assured me.

I did not reply, instead sighing sadly but still filled with hope. I knew Earth was not perfect but it still needed protecting, no matter the cost.

"Oh slag, we're going to crash!" Ratchet cursed a few minutes later.

That had been what happened; every one of us Autobots were thrown about and landed in various positions once the ship had stopped moving after hitting the ground. Ratchet had fallen off of the chair he was in, Emerald and Jazz landed in awkward positions on top of each other, Ironhide was against one wall and Bumblebee had not quite fallen as he had landed on top of Teletran One. I had also been thrown to the floor and had gone part of the way down the hall towards the back of the ship. It didn't hurt that much as we were able to take more damage than non-mechanical beings.

Emerald had gotten up first and came to assist me. "Are you all right sir?" she asked, offering a hand to help me up.

"I am fine Emerald." I said, as she helped me up and we went to check on everyone else.

We were all fine as only minor injuries had resulted from our crash. Jazz then showed us images of Earth vehicles that we would take.

'I think that truck is perfect." I said smiling. "Protocol however is that femmes choose first, then the rest of us based on rank. Emerald, go ahead."

"Thank you." She replied. The green femme scanned the image of a green van and then transformed into it. I then transformed into a truck similar to what had been pictured, Jazz became a Pontiac Solstice, Ironhide a GMC Topkick, Ratchet an ambulance and finally Bumblebee became a Chevy Camaro.

"Autobots explore the area and keep an optic sensor out for the Decepticons. Don't draw any attention to yourselves and do not engage the enemy without backup." I ordered. "Is that clear?"

"Yes sir" my teammates replied.

"Transform and roll out!" I told them, and then we all did so.

Not much had happened that night but we did discover that we were in a small town called "Lanceville" named after a man named Lance Wilson, who had been known for being an honest and fair man and had served as the sheriff for nearly 30 years until he had suffered a tragic death at the hands of an insane murderer, who had never been caught.. His great-great-grandchildren still lived in the area but they seemed to not care to have any attention given to them, according to an interview that had been published in a newspaper several months ago. I was not aware that I would meet those humans until it did happen the next day…

(Jazz's POV)

I was very excited about this next solar cycle, you dig? I wanted to know more about the humans that lived here. I had stopped at a place they called a "playground" where the younglings were all playing together while their caretakers watched them and talked with friends. I had never seen anything like it before but I had patrol to go on and couldn't stay longer. I caught up with Emmy again on the way back to the _Ark_ and said "Can you believe this? Every one of those kids playing together and trying to include everyone."

"You aren't born prejudiced; you'd have to be taught it; those kids seem to have been taught better." She replied as we both drove in and then transformed into robot mode again. "You remember when you first met me; you were so nervous because you thought I was going to judge you based on your accent!"

"Yeah, I remember love." I told her.

(Flashback, 5 million years ago, about a million years before the war started)

(Switch, 3rd person POV Jazz)

He had been taking a walk after a long day and was ready to eat something. Jazz had just walked into Lavender's Baked Goods, the first and so far only shop for sweet things on Cybertron. The items included, of all things, energon cookies, energon goodie cake, cyber-donuts, energon lollipops, and oil cupcakes. Sure, the future Autobot SIC wasn't normally one to stop and get treats for himself but still, the energon cookies were good.

Jazz went in and saw the owner, Lavender herself, standing behind the counter. The light purple femme had been sparked a neutral and was known for helping anyone regardless of faction symbol. That femme wasn't the one who caught his eye though; instead he saw another one. She was colored green over most of her frame, with white forelegs and feet, and white hands and forearms. She had a smile on her face and was talking to Lavender; the 2 seemed to be old friends. Jazz picked up a few energon cookies and went up to the counter to pay for them.

"Hey there handsome, nice shine." The green femme said as she turned to him.

"Darn, you're so lucky Emerald. He's been staring at you for at least 60 nano-kliks" Lavender stated in surprise. She then turned to Jazz. "Those will be 10 credits" she told him, referring to the energon cookies.

The silver mech paid for them and then froze up and got nervous; what if she thought he had sounded funny when he tried to ask her out?

"Well?" Emerald said.

"Name's Jazz. I was going to ask, do you want to go and see the meccha-soccer game later? Jazz asked.

The green femme smiled. "Of course I would."

They both exited talking to each other, with Lavender watching and smiling. She had yet to find a sparkmate of her own but wasn't too disappointed. After all, it wasn't everyday one witnessed a romantic scene or in some cases, became a part of one…

(End flashback, switch to 1st person Jazz)

I couldn't help but smile at that memory. If only those days hadn't ended too soon.

When the war started, Emerald and I both decided to join the Autobot army. It hadn't quite worked out though so we were eventually trained as Cyber-ninjas. I won't brag about how good we are too much but if you could see my mate's moves, you'd know not to mess with her and would probably be pretty impressed.

Optimus had been impressed with both of us though and hence we had been chosen to come with him to wherever we needed to be to stop the Decepticons. I'm not as thrilled about battle as Ironhide gets but still, those punks need to know whose boss and Emmy and I are going to tell them one way or another.

Later, we had to out again this time because the 'cons had started attacking the park and a lot of humans were scattering for safety.

"Damn, that's weak of them!" I shouted.

"Jazz, watch that mouth of yours or I'll disable your vocalizer. We are going into an area where younglings are known to be and they don't need to hear that." Ratchet told me.

"Autobots transform and roll out!" Optimus Prime ordered us.

(Switch to Optimus Prime's personal log)

As I sit here typing this, I have to wonder what did fate have in store for us with the encounter with those children? Before I begin to ponder that though, I must explain exactly what happened.

During the battle, all the humans had fled to safety save for 2 children who seemed lost. I was the only one who had seen them at first and knew that they needed to be taken out of the line of fire. Blackout attempted to fire on them but I tackled him and then shouted to the humans "Go! It's not safe here!"

The 2 of them obeyed me and the battle continued for only 5 more minutes as Megatron called over his comlink to his troops and told them to retreat. Blackout, Barricade, Starscream, Knockout and Frenzy then promptly transformed with the 3rd of the 3 Decepticons saying "We'll finish this later".

I then looked around at the damage; nearly every play structure had been destroyed, several benches had been tossed about and garbage blew all over the place from waste receptacles that had been knocked over. Ratchet found no injured or deceased humans though, a miracle if I ever experienced one.

"We've got to get out of here before more of them see us." Ironhide said.

"Understood old friend but we will have to take whoever did see us back to the ship." I replied, looking over to the 2 young children who seemed to be reuniting with their 6 older siblings.

"Dude, what just happened?" one of the 2 older males asked.

"That's something out of a movie or something." One of the young female humans said, completely in shock.

"I am not going anywhere with anybody." The oldest one of them said.

"You don't have much of a choice." Bumblebee pointed out.

We transformed into our alternate modes; Emerald opened the doors in vehicle mode, and the children reluctantly got in, the said doors closing behind them. I was interested in finding out more about them as they had to find out more about the other Autobots and I. The drive wasn't that long but it did feel like it; I had not wanted us to be exposed like that but that could not be helped. I would have to find some way to explain to the human government what went on as I had the feeling that the children would be more accepting of it.

Upon arriving at the ship, the 8 humans got out of Emerald so that she could transform with the rest of us. Only one of the females got out with slight difficult but was helped by the oldest female and the boy who had first said something to his earlier. Once she was out, every one of my teammates and I transformed into our bi-pedal modes and walked inside, the humans not far behind us.

"Is he going to hurt us?" the twin to the female who had been the 2nd one to speak to us asked in a whisper.

"He and the others would have done it already if that was their intention." The dark colored male explained.

That was very true and it amazed me that one young human was wise enough to know that. It was not the only surprise though; we got to the main room and they all huddled closer together.

"It is all right little ones; no harm will come to you while you are here." I told them. "My name is Optimus Prime and my team and I are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet known as Cybertron. Or you can call us Autobots."

The oldest girl walked up to me and said "My name is Lauren Caitlin Wilson but you may call me Lauren for short." She then introduced her own siblings. "This is Terrence Thomas Wilson, our adopted brother but still a family member nonetheless. He prefers Terry"

"It's an honor to meet all of you." Terry said as he walked around and shook each of my teammate's hands before coming to me.

"The honor is all ours." I told him.

"Name's Kyle Phillip Wilson and I'm the best basketball player in school." The 2nd of the older boys proudly stated.

"Stop bragging, Kyle." His youngest sister said getting annoyed. "They don't even know how to play the game."

"That's why I want to teach them if we ever have time to do that." Kyle smirked.

"We will see if anyone has any time for that." Emerald said.

"Hello; I'm Lisa Rachael Wilson." The 2nd of the red haired humans was somewhat shy as she rolled her wheelchair around to take a good look at everybody.

"Hello there." Ratchet told her, trying to not to stare.

"Don't worry about me; I was born not able to walk and I'm used to it." Lisa sighed, seemingly not wanting any pity although I did pity her a little bit.

"Hi, I'm Darcy Linda Wilson and this is my twin sister, Marcella Louisa Wilson but call her Marcy" the next girl said.

Marcy then saluted us in an unusual way and then became embarrassed when we stared at her. "Oops; didn't realize that you didn't know about the Vulcan salute."

"And what is that?" Ironhide asked.

"Something from the show _Star Trek_ which is pure science fiction and I prefer to study real science." Darcy answered.

I would have to look up the reference for myself later. Next, the girl that I had saved earlier nervously walked up to me. "Thanks for saving me sir. My name's Kayla Frieda Wilson. Sorry I'm a bit shy."

"You are very welcome." I told her. "Do not worry about being shy; I am not going to judge any of you."

"Hey Optimus, thanks again. I'm Brandon David Wilson." The youngest boy said, seemingly the most open about our presence.

"it is nice to meet you and the rest of your brothers and sisters Brandon." I said. I then introduced my teammates. "This is Jazz my 2nd in command and Emerald, his spark mate. They are both 2 of the best Cyber-ninjas in the galaxy."

"He's just kidding because there's plenty of other 'bots just as good as we are." Jazz explained humbly.

"Whoa, there are robots that are ninjas?' Kyle asked. "That's awesome!"

Marcy began singing "**I am ninja, he is ninja-**"

"Marcy, shut up!" Darcy interrupted her.

I ignored them and introduced Ratchet. He scanned all of them saying "They are all in perfect health and are slowly overcoming their fear of us."

"How did you know that?" one of the twins, I believe Darcy, asked him.

"I downloaded every useful bit of information dealing with human anatomy and medicine from your Internet and my scanners can now recognize human patients and detect the state of his or her health." He explained to her.

Ironhide took out his guns upon introducing himself and asked "You feeling lucky punks?"

'"Well, do you?"' Marcy finished for him. Her siblings stood nearly frozen in shock

"Easy Ironhide; we are not trying to scare them away." I said. "Last but certainly not least is my scout Bumblebee."

"Hey kids." He said.

Marcy, Kayla and Brandon immediately went over to him. I correctly deduced that due to him being the youngest on the team, he had a need to befriend young humans as they would understand how hard it was to be one of the youngest in a family or on a team.

"So, why are you here?" Lauren finally asked.

"We are here to protect your world from Megatron and his Decepticons." I answered. "The war began long before humans even existed…"

When I had finished explaining it to them, the children were frightened again. "Optimus, this is the craziest thing that I ever heard but I have a feeling that you're not lying." Terry stated.

"Indeed, he is not." Ironhide stated. "Even though a lot of us wish that this wasn't serious."

Lauren came up to me and said "Optimus, I don't know if I can handle the truth about this."

"Regardless of that fact, it seems that fate has brought us together." I replied. "The reason for this I do not know. Emerald, you and Jazz take the children back to their home the first of you stay there and keep an optic sensor on them."

"Yes sir." Emerald and Jazz both said as the kids started following them out.

Kayla however remained behind a little bit longer. "I don't know if anyone's told you this but you'd make a great father." She said before following her siblings.

Now the rest of our team is in recharge save for myself and Bumblebee who is on guard duty tonight. I trust Emerald to keep the children safe but I can't help but still worry about what the Decepticons will do to them…

Author's note: Wow, 6 pages. That's the longest that I've had for any chapter.


	3. Chapter 3 getting to know them better

Transformers: the bonds of family chapter 3

(Emerald's POV)

Driving the children home was surprisingly easy and uneventful but I still kept my guard up. They began talking about their ages. Lauren was 17, Terry was 15, Kyle was 13, Lisa was 11, Darcy and Marcy were 9, Kayla was 7, and Brandon was 5 years old. They had not yet told me or Jazz or any other Autobot of their parents' deaths until I asked.

Lisa was the one who answered "They were on vacation and were accidentally killed when hiking. We don't like to talk about it."

I decided not to ask any more questions regarding that subject as I pulled up to their home. The kids all got out and I remained in vehicle mode, scanning the area and watching. Jazz said good bye to me and drove out of sight. I watched the kids go inside and scanned the area, making sure that no threats were around. Thank Primus there weren't any but I was not taking any chances. I stayed up the whole night, watching and waiting for the 'cons to strike…

The next morning I was driving the children back to the ship; as it was "Labor Day" their schooling did not start until the next day, which was "Tuesday" according to the info I had found on the Internet. That was when Terry asked for me to roll down a window. I soon found out why he had asked that. He leaned out and "threw up" as it was called as I stopped outside of the ship.

"Gross." I muttered.

Ratchet immediately came to see what the trouble was, taking the oldest boy into the medical bay and giving him a bucket. Jazz wiped me off with a rag while the other children got out, with Lauren lifting Lisa out of the van and Kyle getting her wheelchair so that his younger sister could sit in it.

"Next time drive slower please." Lisa said, slightly annoyed.

"Lisa." Lauren sighed. "Sorry we didn't tell you about Terry getting carsick."

Jazz finished cleaning me off and I transformed into robot mode. "Well, it could have been worse." I replied, as I led them into the ship.

"I can't believe how disgusting all of you are." Ironhide muttered.

"That may be but we're used to it." Darcy came up with a good retort. "Besides, one day I would like to be a doctor and I'll have to deal with things like that on a daily basis since I don't get grossed out as easily as the rest of my siblings."

I was as surprised as our resident weapons specialist was but didn't say anything about it.

"Emerald, are you all right?" Optimus asked me, concern filling his voice.

"I'm fine sir." I replied. "What about Terrence?"

"He'll be fine; he just needs to rest." Ratchet said as he came up to us.

Everyone sighed with relief as Optimus Prime took the kids aside and began explaining Cybertron's origin to them as we had been told since we were sparklings.

(Switch to 3rd person POV)

"...it was then that Primus created 13 Cybertronians to help defeat Unicron." Optimus was saying. "They were Prima, Alpha Trion, Vector Prime, Nexus Prime, Solus Prime, Liege Maximo, Alchemist Prime, Amalgamous Prime, 2 others whose names I do not know and one who would later betray his brothers and sister and later become knwon as The Fallen."

"Whoa, what happened next?" Brandon asked. He and the rest of his siblings were extremely interested in the story at this point.

"The battle was long and violent and is difficult to describe as it was said to be 'beyond good, beyond evil, beyond one's imagination'" Optimus replied. "Unicron was defeated though the peace that came while the Cybertronian population grew was not to last. The Fallen revealed his betrayal and was eventually imprisoned, although several of the original Primes lost their lives. The few that were left continued the duties assigned to them by Primus and many other things happened eventually leading up to the war still fought between Autobots and Decepticons in the present time."

Lauren was amazed at how terrible things were for the Autobots; the many things that humans had done to each other did seem much worse though. Various ways of killing each other, violence in general, and so many other things. She immediately got up and began walking down the hallway of the ship. Being reminded of anything horrible made her wonder if it was worth being human...

(Ratchet's POV)

Ratchet was surprised that Darcy had followed him to the medical bay, wanting to ask him about Transformers' medicine.

"How do you guys make each other?" the human girl asked.

"It's complicated and certainly much different than how nonmechanical beings do so." the medic replied, then began telling her the details.

The 11 year old kid genius paid attention the whole time, very fascinated as she often became when hearing about something new.

Meanwhile, her siblings were talking with the other Autobots and everyone was getting to know each other very well. Unfortunately, good things never last, even for Autobots and potential allies and that was proved with what happened next...

Author's note: Got writer's block again. *sighs*


	4. Chapter 4 Optimus' talk with Kayla

Transformers the bonds of family chapter 4

(Optimus Prime's personal log)

When Lauren noticed I was following her, she immediately apologized for having tried to wander away from her siblings and the rest of us.

"It is all right Lauren." I said smiling. "If you wanted a tour of the ship, you should have asked first though."

She looked away; apparently, that was not why she had wanted to be alone. "That's not it but I don't want to talk about what it really is Optimus. I don't trust you enough to do that yet and you'd think that I would since you saved Kayla's and Brandon's lives."

I did not press on, even though it was tempting. Kyle soon called Lauren to come back and eat the meal the human children had brought with them. I retreated to my quarters to be alone, letting my teammates get to know the young ones we had befriended a bit better.

This did not quite work out; 15 Earth minutes later, I heard the door open. I looked down and saw Kayla.

"Oh, I didn't know this was your room!" she said, backing away.

"Kayla, come here." I told her gently.

She did so, walking slowly towards where I was sitting on my chair. When she was closer to me, she stopped walking and I offered her my hand to climb into. Kayla climbed onto it, at first getting frightened when I lifted her up but was reassured that I would not drop her. I sat her down on my lap and asked the human girl "What were you doing wandering around alone?"

"I was looking for you and I didn't realize that you were in here until a few moments ago; I didn't want you to be all alone with no one talking to you and getting to know you better." Kayla replied, trying not to be shy.

I smiled at her and replied "It is all right little one. I am merely concerned for your safety"

"I know." Kayla said. She sighed sadly.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Optimus, I wish my parents were here to meet you." She replied, starting to tear up. The human girl began explaining about her parents' deaths. "They were hiking and camping by themselves for their wedding anniversary and it was the day after that particular date. A gunman started shooting but it wasn't as random as it appeared; he had tried to get someone else but missed and hit my dad, then he shot my mom point blank when she stood in front of a little boy to protect him. Said gunman also shot 3 other people; only 2 of them survived and the little boy was one of the survivors. My dad crawled over to my mom and he held her hand when they were dying. A witness reported him saying 'Honey, we're in God's hands now. He'll take care of us and he'll take care of the kids for us' just before they both began praying and asking that the one who shot them be forgiven, and then they breathed their last."

Needless to say I was shocked and saddened by the story but hugged Kayla. "You do not have to finish telling it." I told her

"I still should though. It was Lauren who got the phone call telling us what had happened; she and Terry were the ones who identified our parents, the rest of us did not want to see them like that." Kayla continued through tears. "Said gunman was caught and the trial is next year; Lauren doesn't want to go but she feels that we should and thinks it will give us closure but nothing really can."

"Indeed that is very true and I know this all too well." I replied. I moved Kayla closer to my spark and where the Matrix of Leadership is stored in my chest. I did not and still do not understand completely why but the Matrix seemed to briefly engulf the human girl I was holding in a blue light and gave her a peaceful feeling and reassuring her that she was not alone with what she and her siblings were dealing with.

For the next few minutes, I was silent and simply being there. Kayla looked up at me, and began smiling again. "Thanks Optimus for letting me talk to you and making me feel comfortable with doing so." She said.

"You are very welcome my friend." I told her.

We went back to the main room and talked with the other humans and Autobots about random things, unaware of what would happen the next day…

(POV switch, Emerald)

When I took the children home, Optimus had been in contact with some human authorities, including the mayor of Lanceville, the county sheriff, the state governor, and the U.S. President explaining about what had gone on the day before and it seemed as though they were actually listening. Kayla commented on this as I drove away from the ship with her and her siblings. "How can Optimus be like that? Whenever he talks to you, it's like he's looking into your soul and knows when you don't feel that great. When he speaks, it's like everything stops to listen to him."

"He's learned many things overtime and has the wisdom of past Autobot leaders stored in the Matrix of Leadership." I explained.

"Was he born like that or was he just randomly chosen to be the leader?" Kyle asked.

"He was in fact chosen to lead us when the previous leader went offline." I told him. "Optimus isn't perfect though; even the greatest person that ever lived has personal flaws."

The rest of the night was uneventful but made me very suspicious. My suspicions were proved correct the next day; Lauren had gone from school to her workplace, a store called "Target". Jazz was going to pick her up as I was in much needed recharge after staying awake nearly 2 Earth nights. The other children had been picked up from school by Ironhide and Bumblebee when the news came in: Lauren had been kidnapped by a certain Decepticon interrogation officer Barricade. I shuddered at the idea and began to feel guilty. "Why couldn't I have been able to be alert enough to stay in the parking lot and wait for her?" I asked when my sparkmate was having his injuries from the fight treated by Ratchet.

"Emerald, we can not change what has already happened but that does not mean that I do not have a plan to rescue Lauren." Optimus Prime assured me. "Now if only I could be sure that it would work…"

Author's note: Sorry this is short; I plan to have the next chapter be from Lauren's POV regarding her kidnapping whenver I get to it.


	5. Kidnapping, rescue and aftermath

Chapter 5

(1st person Lauren)

One second I'm walking towards Jazz so that he can take me home from work to be with my siblings, the next I find myself running for my life. Not what I expected to happen on Tuesday, an otherwise ordinary day besides now knowing that there was life on other planets. Well, at least one other one anyways.

I'm not sure how it happened but Jazz was easily defeated by the Decepticon he was fighting; the former grabbed me, transformed around me and strapped me into the back seat with both seatbelts.

"Starscream to Barricade, do you have that flesh creature?" a voice asked over the radio.

"Affirmative Commander Starscream but she is being uncooperative." My captor, whose name I now knew, replied.

I had in fact been trying to get out of the seatbelts and kick the back doors open but so far I was unsuccessful so I stopped.

"Knock her out; we do not need her telling the Autobots about the location of our base." Starscream stated.

I don't know what it was that Barricade put in the air but it did put me to sleep for several hours according to what I found out later. Just before I passed out, I began thinking that this was going to be the end of me…

(1st person POV Darcy)

Note #2

It has hard to believe what has happened to us kids over the past few days but it is so amazing at the same time. Today, us kids got home, took several outfits of clothes, our school stuff, and our food out of the house since Optimus Prime suspected that the Decepticons had probably figured out where our home was by now and it would no longer be safe for us there. Now we are at the Autobot base, waiting for Optimus, Ironhide and Bumblebee to get Lauren back to us.

To keep my mind off of things, I've been thinking about how Ratchet explained to me about how Cybertronians are made of living metal and are not limited to Earth technology. Needless to say, it was a bit scary how similar their method of reproduction was to that of organic species but there a few key differences plus according to the Autobot medic, not nearly as messy as far as the "birth" goes. That made me think of Marcy's favorite underrated movie _*batteries not included_ and how the "robotic" species in that movie also had a similar way of reproducing like non robotic species only the "birth" method being the newborn "robots" just exiting the "womb" after the metal plating on the female Fix-it just opens . Needless to say, that is not the only aspect of Cybertronian "biology" that I'm interested in. Maybe Ratchet will tell me more about it such as homeostasis, what they eat for food, etc.

(Sometime later)

Ratchet has explained that he fears that Lauren will be subject to extremely nasty torture. I don't want to know if that's sexual in nature although that's not likely since, as Optimus Prime explained it, they look down on humans and probably wouldn't want to bother messing with certain parts.

I didn't want to admit that I was scared but Ratchet still knew that I was. He stepped out of his role as medic temporarily and gave me a friendly hug, maybe the only thing good so far today. I'm still hoping that Optimus, 'Hide, and 'Bee get my oldest sister back here alive and in one piece…

(Optimus Prime's POV)

"Like hell I'm going to tell you where the Autobots' ship is located."

I heard Lauren say that as soon as Bumblebee created an open comlink. Surprising as her resilience was, I was very surprised to hear what Knockout had to say.

"Pity, I might just have to force it out of by getting into certain places."

No, I thought to myself. I did not know where those parts on a human were but I knew that there were times that Decepticons would touch femme prisoners inappropriately no matter what the species as a torture method, usually they did not do much worse than that with few exceptions. Lauren shouted "You get your hands away from there!"

That was when I heard her screaming. "He wouldn't!" I wanted to believe that as I said that but knew that it was false.

"Prime, we got to get her now!" Ironhide said.

I wasted no time following him onto the Nemesis; from what I could tell from mostly hearing gunfire over the comlink, Bumblebee was already engaging the Decepticon. Ironhide and I came to assist; I picked up Lauren, whose clothing had been removed and transformed around her to drive her back to our ship while my two teammates held the enemy off.

"Optimus thanks for getting me out of there." Lauren was embarrassed to be seen without anything covering her however, I was mature enough to not look at those parts and instead focused on driving. I knew Marcy had packed several outfits for her sister in a suitcase so she would have something to put on once we got there.

I took a blanket out of subspace and she put it over herself.

"Lauren, what did they do to you?" I asked.

She replied "Well, Starscream he tried to throw me against the wall when Bumblebee came in-I wound up hitting Bumblebee before he caught me and now my head hurts." She rubbed her head for emphasis. "I don't want to talk about what Knockout did."

"Do not worry; we are almost to the ship."

"Prime, we're retreating now and we're on our way, ETA is 20 Earth minutes." Bumblebee told me, now having switched the comlink to a closed connection.

"Thank you both of you." I told them.

I could only hope that Ratchet could take care of Lauren, physically and emotionally once I got her to him. Those who attack anyone via inappropriate touching and/or forced interfacing, especially those too young to understand what it is, are weak and cowards though I am not surprised that the Decepticons have stooped that low…

(Neutral 3rd person POV)

Lauren was now being examined by Ratchet. She had hated that she could not have clothes on again just yet but was cooperating with him.

"Knockout touched my breasts and punched me thinking that I had somehow contacted all of you when I didn't once Bumblebee stopped him from doing worse things." The human girl admitted, after having told the Autobot medic that he had a headache.

Ratchet scanned her. "Having hit your head is the most serious of your injuries fortunately." He said. "You may get the clothes Marcy left in here for you on now."

"Thanks." Lauren was helped down from the medical berth and then she put the new clothes on. After she had gotten on every piece of clothing, she put on her shoes and took a small bag of ice from Ratchet and held it against the back of her head as she walked back to the main room of the ship.

Emerald saw Lauren and then asked "Anything else you want to talk about?"

"No." the human teenager replied. "I just want a hug."

Lauren's siblings all came to hug her. She accepted this and then asked "So, where are we going to sleep tonight?"

"We do have a spare room where you can put your sleeping bags on the floor." Jazz replied.

"Awesome!" Brandon shouted excitedly, going to put his stuff in the room. His siblings followed and then Bumblebee went with them to show them where it was.

Optimus Prime sighed then looked to Ratchet. The Autobot leader then spoke to the medic. "If Lauren had been raped or worse killed, I do not think I could forgive myself. I barely got there in time."

"Prime, she and her siblings are safe now. As we know that the Decepticons were planning to blow up their home, we have them all here and they will be better protected." Ratchet reassured him.

"Anyways, we got the kids here just in time; I intercepted an emergency call for an explosion." Ironhide added.

Optimus wondered. "How long should they stay here? I find myself getting more attached to them, Kayla thinks of me as a progenitor, father as they would put it…I do not want the kids to have to have a creator bond with me as a Cybertronian having a bond with an organic has severe effects on the latter species."

"Prime, whatever is meant to be will be." Jazz said. "If they've got to stay with us permanently, we'll all help with caring for them. "

"Thank you all of you; I will inform the mayor that the children are safe and that they should be allowed to see if anything of theirs is salvageable." The Autobot leader stated. He then went to Teletran-1 to do so, wondering if he would be the right person to be a parent to 8 younglings who were of a different species than he was…


	6. Reassurances and decisions

Transformers the bonds of family chapter 6

(Lauren's POV)

My friend Michelle lost her grandmother to cancer a few years ago; she told me that while she knew it was coming, the death was still said. I always thought in my initial grief after my parents' deaths that they were extremely unlucky. They did not think that they would die that day and it had been unexpected and all because some idiot had an issue with someone else and tried to kill more people than those who were his victims. I had not wanted to take the phone call explaining about what had happened but I did. I was the oldest and felt that I had to be reponsible for my siblings and so far, it had been a rollercoaster ride taking care of them. While the presence of the Autobots and Decepticons did make things more complicated, they were not the main reason for my not being able to sleep.

I got up out of my sleeping bag and suck out of the unused storage room and started walking down the hallway. I did run into Optimus again, this time though I wanted to talk to him. I wasn't sure why but I felt like he would be the only one who would listen and understand what I was feeling at this point.

"Lauren you should be resting now; regardless of the fact that you no longer have a living space, you still need to be awake for school and work tomorrow." he told me.

"I know but I can't sleep." I told him sadly. "I've got a lot on my mind."

Prime seemed to understand "I can sense that young one. Do you wish to talk about it now?"

"Yes, but it's not going to be easy and it might take a while." I said.

Optimus then went to his room with me following close behind. When I had come in he shut the door and he then lifted me up and sat on his berth, finally setting me down on his lap. I took a deep breath then began telling him everything...

(Optimus Prime's POV 3rd person)

The redheaded human girl took a deep breath and began explaining that while things were complicated in her life and the TFs just made it worse, she did like the Autobots and was thankful to Optimus for his and his team's assistance to her and her siblings. "I felt that I shouldn't say anything to anyone because someone like you Optimus deals with a lto of stress and I didn't want to make anything harder for you." she finished, trying not to cry although tears were starting to run down her face.

"Lauren, come here." Optimus Prime said.

Lauren did so and the Autobot leader picked her and let her cry on his shoulder, as though she were a sparkling that needed comfort.

"I c-can't take it; I feel like such a baby." the human girl admitted.

"You are not; it is all right to cry in front of me." Optimus reassured her. "I know you do not think humans would be worth saving; sadly Ironhide doesn't either but I've seen good in them. I know not all humans are like yourself and your brothers and sisters but all of you deserve to choose for yourselves what you do with your lives. Though the situations you find yourself in may be out of your control, only you can decide how you deal with them. It all depends on perspective."

Lauren continued crying for nearly 3 hours while the Autobot leader remained silent. When the human girl was asleep, he walked into the room where her's and her siblings' sleeping bags had been put on the floor, careful not to step on any of them. Optimus slipped the teenager into her empty sleeping bag and put a pillow under her head. He noticed that Kayla, Brandon, and Marcy had awoken.

"Optimus, what happened?" Brandon asked, a bit worried.

"I'm scared of what will happen next." Kayla added.

Marcy did not say anything as for once, she was not in the mood to quote a TV show, movie, etc after all she and her siblings had been through.

"Go back to sleep little ones." Optimus Prime said in a gentle tone of voice. He then played some music from a personal data pad of his, an instrumental piece from Cybertron that was meant to calm younglings, and soon all of the Wilson siblings were sleeping.

Kyle mumbled in his sleep "Good night everybody"

"Rest well children; do not let your hearts be troubled and try to clear your minds." the Autobot leader began saying a blessing "You and your peers are the future of your race and all humans including yourselves will be protected no matter the cost as this world needs those who are kind and think of others before themselves. May your dreams tonight only be filled with wonderful things and may fate treat all of you well in the coming days."

Optimus then left the room, hoping that even if nothing from the siblings' home was salvageable, that they'd be able to find a new one if not with the Autobots, then with someone who cared. Still, he wasn't sure why he would want to take care of them; sure, the others would be of help especially Emerald and Jazz, as they wanted to be parents one day and they would have the experience beforehand but how was he going to handle fights, punishments, teenage angst, limits on cell phone, Internet and TV usage and what would he do if one of the kids was attacked by a fellow human being? Prime sighed. He knew these weren't the only things that came with being a parent and that he would not know if he'd be able to handle it unless he tried. It would be time consuming fighting Megatron and the other Decepticons though. Hopefully, if the kids did decide to live with the Autobots, they'd be able to understand that.

Optimus Prime went into recharge, realizing that the kids would probably understand. Now to ask them if they wanted to be adopted by himself and the other Autobots...


	7. Salvageable things and a battle

Transformers: the bonds of family chapter 7

The next morning, Optimus had walked into the room just as the Wilson siblings had woken up. He smiled, guessing correctly that the kids had slept well.

"Optimus, I need to go to the bathroom!" Brandon insisted.

"I do too!" Marcy added.

"There is a refueling station not too far from here; Bumblebee can take you there to relieve yourselves." Optimus Prime told them.

Marcy and Brandon quickly slipped their shoes on and ran towards Bumblebee when he appeared outside of the room in vehicle mode.

"Does anybody else have to go?" the Autobot scout asked.

The other kids said yes they did and while Marcy, Brandon, Darcy, and Terry rode with Bumblebee to the gas station, Ironhide took Lisa, Kayla, Kyle and Lauren and followed behind them.

"He had to ask." Ratchet sighed. "Still, it can't be helped that humans get rid of their body waste differently than we do."

"Indeed my friend." Optimus replied.

"Well, what are they going to eat for breakfast?" Emerald wanted to know.

"There are places in town they can go." Jazz answered his sparkmate reassuringly.

"Well whoever is taking them shouldn't take them to a fast food restaurant; there are many things in those food items that are bad for human consumption." Ratchet informed them.

Soon the siblings came back to change into clean outfits and after doing so, were prepared to go to school. Emerald drove them, with Jazz and Ironhide coming along just in case the 'Cons had figured out that the kids had actually survived.

(Optimus Prime's personal log entry)

It's been a very rough day but it seems to have worked out in the end. When the other human children were released from school, I immediately made Jazz go to Lauren's place of work in order to ensure her safety and her siblings came with me to what remained of their home. Ratchet was searching through the rubble but had not found much that was salvageable save for some boxes of photographs and a silver heart shaped locket that had the phrase "To Anita, from Edward" written on the front. Inside was a picture of 2 human adults on what I assumed was their wedding day and behind that picture, one of all 8 Wilson siblings.

Darcy could not believe it. "Dad gave that to Mom for her birthday 2 months before they died." She said sadly. "I just can't believe it and those boxes of photos actually survived whatever explosives the 'cons used."

"Perhaps there is a reason for those things being salvageable whereas everything else was not." Emerald commented. "Unfortunately, I couldn't say what it is."

"Indeed that is true." I agreed with her.

The children had returned with us to the ship after getting food from Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner when the emergency call came in; the town was in chaos due to Megatron's troops launching a full scale attack.

"I can't believe this; it's my fault for taking us out to the park and meeting the Autobots." Lauren groaned. "They're looking for us."

"Lauren, please do not take the blame for another's actions." I told her. "You and your siblings are safe here and we intend to keep the rest of the humans in your town safe as well no matter the cost."

"We know Optimus." Lisa replied. "We just hope everything turns out okay."

"We all do." Jazz said. "Prime, we need to head out now!"

"Autobots transform and roll out!" I told my team. "Ratchet, keep the children safe please."

He agreed to do so and the rest of us headed for the battlefield, not sure of what would happen next…

(Emerald's POV)

Maybe it was the fact that Blackout was being a jerk since he was known to hate femmes or maybe it was because I would be considered a feminist by human standards but I had given him one of the toughest fights of his existence.

"I swear I'll get you next time." He groaned when I had finished him.

I immediately began helping humans get out of the way of the rest of us and came upon a human couple, one of whom was in distress.

"She's having our baby!" her husband informed me. "We need to get to the hospital fast!"

I transformed into my alternate mode and then opened the doors so that they could get in and sped towards the human medical center and dropped them off, thankfully just in time. I would not have wanted to explain to Optimus a big mess of who knew what all over my front seat. I then went back to the site of battle to see if anything else needed to be done.

The battle lasted maybe 2 hours at the most, ending when most of the Decepticons were injured and had to retreat. Humans had been injured as well but I returned to the ship so that Ratchet could go out and help transport them to the nearest hospitals. It was the least he could do as he told us all an hour later after Optimus had apologized to news reporters for our part in the destruction of the downtown area and informed everyone that they and their loved ones would be in his prayers tonight. The Wilson siblings began praying as well; it was all we could do right now...


	8. the end for now

Transformers the bonds of family chapter 8

5 days had gone by and Optimus Prime had reason to feel happy. The humans had agreed to help the Autobots renovate an old military hanger into a base and the Wilson siblings had expressed an interest in staying with the Autobots. Whether the human government would allow it would be another thing entirely.

"Optimus, is there any difference between a spark and a human heart?" Darcy asked him, interrupting the leader's thoughts.

"Other than different physical makeup, no." he replied.

"All right then." Darcy continued writing down notes about what she had learned about the Autobots so far.

The Prime couldn't help but smile at her curiosity; the 9 year old girl, along with her twin and older siblings, was slowing warming up to the Autobots so to speak and starting to consider them friends- no family. Then again, it was tradition that a Prime was to take care of those young ones who could not take care of themselves and Optimus had once done volunteer work at a sparkling nursery before the war started. After it had, he switched to doing his new duty of leading the Autobots in the fight for freedom and had seemingly forgotten about this tradition until the night after the Decepticon attack on the town of Lanceville, Washington when he had begun to dream.

"Optimus, we know of your fondness for young ones. The Wilson siblings need you." Solus Prime had explained in that said dream.

Optimus could no longer deny it; his spark seemed bent on having a bond with the human children, even with the risks involved, and he replied "I will take care of all of them even though it will be difficult in addition to my other duties."

He was then woken up by Kayla saying "Optimus, I had a nightmare. May I sleep with you?"

"Of course you may." Optimus Prime replied, lifting her up onto his chest and making sure the blanket was pulled over her.

Soon the other Wilson siblings had slowly climbed onto him after he had fallen into recharge again and the Autobot leader unconsciously put them in better sleeping positions so that they would not fall. When they had woken up in the morning, Ironhide had joked "Prime, don't go too soft on us."

Optimus laughed it off and told him "Love isn't a source of weakness my friend; rather it is a source of strength, one that the Decepticons could never understand"

Several weeks later, the base was completed and the Autobots were able to move into it. Optimus had signed papers and was soon granted legal custody of the human children he had grown attached to. Now it was about 2 days after everyone had moved in and gotten settled in and the Autobot leader was telling the kids all about Elita One.

"Is she a carbon copy of you?" Lisa asked sounding confused.

"Certainly not; she can be a bit more strict than I tend to be and very skilled when it comes to fighting on the battlefiled yet is also compassionate to those who need her help." Optimus Prime smiled, getting nonstalgic as he said that.

When he had finished telling the story, all 8 of the Wilson siblings were tired.

"Kids, you need recharge; you're going to school tomorrow you know." Ironhide pointed out.

"We're not sleep yet." Brandon said, yawing in the middle of his sentence.

"Your actions and my scans suggest otherwise." Ratchet told the kids.

Needless to say, none of the Wilson siblings put up an argument after that but they did fall asleep and Optimus picked them up and walked down the hallway where the human living space was and began to gently set them down into their beds in their own rooms. First to be tucked in was Brandon; his room had a few pictures of his favorite cartoon characters on the walls in addition to a bin of toys that had been donated to him and his siblings buy several parishioners of the church they attended.

Optimus shifted the other sleeping human children into his other arm and used one hadn to put Brandon into his bed and tuck him in. "Good night." the youngest boy muttered in his sleep.

"Good night little one; the day will come when you are able to learn what your older siblings have learned." the Autobot leader said a small blessing and put a metal finger on the boy's chest, feeling the latter's heartbeat. While Optimus did know the kids would be fine he still worried quite a bit as they would not live as long as the Autobots would but the time he would have with them would be enjoyable.

Though the rest of the siblings didn't say anything in their sleep as they were tucked in in their rooms, one by one and youngest to oldest, Optimus Prime still said a blessing to each of them when they had been tucked in. He had now slipped a shivering Kayla into her bed and put a blanket over her. "Good night Kayla; may you always have faith that things will be fine even in the worst situations."

The blessings Optimus said to the other kids were the following:

To Marcy-"Although most the stories you enjoy reading and seeing are fiction,the ability to compare those to real life situations may help you find a way to deal with those thing but remember this; my love for you and your siblings is real."

To Darcy-"Although science helps us understand many things, it can not explain everything. Perhaps someday you will be able to learn this."

To Lisa-"Do not worry about the negative things that others may say as it depends on what you think and do to either prove them right or prove them wrong."

To Kyle-"may you always remember that the other members of any team, whether they play a sport or do other things, must be given credit just as the star player is".

To Terry-"Whatever you wish to do with your life is your own choice; I hope that someday you will be able to find yourself."

To Lauren-"Remember that when you lead those you care about it can be a burden but they help to bear it with you. May you always be a good influence on others."

Now the Autobot leader was back in his own quarters; the rest of his team had gone into recharge save for Emerald and Bumblebee who had opted to patrol and keep a watch for the Decepticons. Optimus began wondering just a little whether Elita would like or hate the Wilson siblings. He then went into recharge himself, thinking that it may or may not be possible for his sparkmate to join him on Earth but he would wait to see what happened and deal with everything one day at a time...


End file.
